MP joins towncentre aid calls
STOCKTON North MP Frank Cook has added his voice to demands for Government to include deprived Teesside town centres in a £3m scheme designed to help high streets fight recession.
In what many saw as a glaring ommision when the scheme was announced, Redcar, Stockton and Billingham were all missed in the handout to 57 councils, which will receive more than £52,000 apiece to reinvigorate dismal retail areas. Darlington, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool all benefited. Mr Cook said the way in which the cash was carved up was “illogical and unfair”. Middlesbrough South MP Ashok Kumar has made similar criticisms.
“Anyone who looks at the number of empty shops on Stockton high street or in Billingham town centre can see for themselves the scale of the difficulties we have,” said Mr Cook. “The vacancy rates of around 20% should have easily qualified Stockton borough for aid under the scheme but it seems we were ruled out because Stockton is not within the third most ‘deprived’ authorities nationally.
“That decision simply defies logic. I have written to John Denham urging him to reconsider.”
